Red Bull Heavy Metal
Snowboarding - Freestyle
Salt Lake City, UT 5/15/2004
Photocredit: (c)Trevor Graves
Marc Frank Montoya and Travis Kennedy win Snowboardings's premier railslide event at Red Bull Heavy Metal in Salt Lake City, UT
May 15, 2004 (Salt Lake City, UT) - After a three year reign as the sport's premier railslide event, Red Bull Heavy Metal gave its final performance tonight in front of thousands of screaming snowboard fans at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Riders sessioned two zones containing several straight, kinked and curved rails in a jam session format lasting 45 minutes for each zone. Travis Kennedy of Alaska won Zone One with an impressive 270 off a crescent handrail that sent the crowd into a frenzy. Winning Zone Two was snowboard legend, Marc Frank Montoya of Colorado, who cleared a fourteen foot gap and then cleanly completed a backside 270. Riders were judged on best trick and overall performance in each zone.
To transform the steps leading to the home of the Utah Jazz, ten truckloads of snow were brought in from Alta, Utah and specially designed handrails were fabricated which provided the ultimate showcase for a hand-picked group of the world's best rail riders. Standouts included snowboard greats; Jeremy Jones, Scotty Arnold, Danny Kass, Jordan Mendenhall and Eddie Wall.
For the second year in a row, a Zone Two winner was compelled to share his winnings with a fellow rider. Similar to last year's event in Portland where Bjorn Leines divided his prize with TJ Schneider, this year Marc Frank Montoya spilt half of his $10,000 check with rider Chris Rotax who barely missed the judge's nod.
"Little homie Rotax stepped up, I couldn't take all the money. This event is a full jam session and Chris was right there in the mix," said Montoya after his noble move.
Rotax remarked, "I'm so glad to be here, there are some big riders. It was great to ride with guys like Jeremy Jones, Danny Kass and Eddie Wall. It was awesome, I was just having fun."
Equally impressive of the mostly male performances, was the exhibition put
on by a handful of women riders (of the 33 competing athletes, 5 were women). Erin Comstock of Utah won Zone One and Laura Hadar of Utah won Zone Two.
"The rails were fun. The downrail (straight) was insane because you could do so many tricks. It was great," Comstock said in front of her adoring fans.
The action began tonight at 7 p.m. with a qualifier of mostly local riders which allowed for top finishers to advance to the main event. Jeff Kramer, Lane Knaack and Aaron Anderson made to cut, which rounded the total athlete
field to 33 riders. From 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. riders pitted themselves against metal and concrete in a world-class display of the progressive
railriding at its finest. Impressive tricks like frontside and 180 boardslides, 540s, and 270s and melded with high energy heavy metal music as the best railslide event finished in perfect conditions. All who attended will surely agree, it was a sight to behold.
Before the time of Red Bull Heavy Metal, a void existed in the competitive arena of rail contests. Throwing one's self on a snowboard down a metal handrail perched above a flight of concrete stairs had no competitive outlet. This style of snowboarding was not included in the sanctioned contests and standardized events at the time. Top athletes were demanding its inclusion. Red Bull Heavy Metal answered their call. This third and final year will go in the books as the event that changed it all.
Final results:
Zone One
Men's Winner - Travis Kennedy
Women's Winner - Erin Comstock
Zone Two
Men's Winner - Marc Frank Montoya
Women's Winner - Laura Hadar
